Birth Order Does Not Affect Your Personality At All

New Germ study disproves the theory that birth order affects your personality

For ages it has been the popular belief that your status as a first, middle or youngest child in a family will definitely have a big word to say in your persona later in life. However, even if rooted in social tradition, birth order does not affect your personality at all.

The theory that your order number as your parents’ progeny has long been a given, especially in families with three children. Therefore it is commonly believed that the oldest child will be the most ambitious, a role model for the younger ones, if you will. The middle child will be socially brilliant, liked and envied by everyone. And the smallest will always be the spoilt and weak one, the one who will never achieve much in life, given his sheltered existence so far.

Science, by means of a survey, is proud to say tradition is wrong. The acclaimed University of Leipzig, in Germany has conducted this new study, on 20 000 people in three countries, US, UK and their homeland, Germany. Therefore, it is fair to say it’s quite extensive and, thusly, believable.

What they found was surprising in terms that the first child will not always be the most mature, or the most responsible, as a human being. Tradition had it this way as, probably, individuals tend to confuse being mature with being old or older of age. But no one is to say a 20 year old cannot be at least as mature and as responsible as a 40 year old.

As far as middle children go, social skills do not rely solely upon this fact alone. It has been proven time and time again that social skills are an acquired asset that comes to a person via a series of different channels, abilities and experiences that one may or may not have during a lifetime. Therefore, being a middle child does not automatically make you fit to entertain the Queen, even if tradition has it so.

But probably the most disturbing popular belief was that about the junior. Believing that all smallest children of families will be failures is a preposterous thing. Also, it may very well be dangerous, given the fact that, if parents start off with this thought, they might severely psychologically harm their child.

However, even if the study has completely blown apart this old tale of sibling order having to do with personality, it did show that it has something to do with IQ. It seems that, indeed, if you are the first born, you do earn a few extra IQ points.

The reason is the fact that you do play the part of the “tutor” in the brotherhood game. Your younger brothers will look up to you, ask you questions and you will have to answer, help and teach. These three activities require higher demands as far as cognition goes. In turn, this will spark up your intellect and your IQ score.

About Marlene R. Litten

Marlene has always been a journalist at heart, though her wordsmithing capabilities helped her contribute to a multitude of blogs before finally settling for the online press. She strongly advocates for those treated unjustly and likes to cover US and World news.